In the preferred field of practical application of the invention, that of wine packaging, “bag in box” containers have been used for a long time, which, as its name indicates, are formed by the combination of a bag manufactured in laminated-technique plastic materials, which constitutes a type of “wineskin” provided with a tap, where the bag is housed inside a cardboard box which gives adequate protection and stability to said bag and particularly to the bag's tap.
This type of container, compared with the classic bottling of wines in rigid containers of different types, entails considerable advantages. Both bottling and “bag in box” solutions have in common the need to be equipped with a closure which is sufficiently water-tight and impermeable to the entry of gases, including air, since wine (and other liquids) are especially sensitive to the contact with the gases after the bottle or bag in box have been open, since oxidation, or reaction with other undesirable substances that access the inside of the container, occurs. Therefore, the consumer often finds that the wine loses qualities with the passage of time, having to drink it quickly before it is ruined.
The bag has no greater requirements than the use of materials suitable for the level of the barrier effect one wants to obtain, whilst for the tap there are multiple structural and functional solutions, always attempting to lengthen the time the wine can remain in perfect condition inside the container to the greatest possible extent, as well as its water-tightness, ergonomics, security and other improved features.
Within the variety of existing taps, the one shown by Spanish patent ES 2 060 119 should be indicated, to the point that after its legal life having ended and having become public domain, it has been adopted by several tap manufacturers.
However, the tap of said European patent has certain problems that are fundamentally centered on the following aspects:
Although the tap is equipped with a seal which guarantees the authenticity of its content and the volume it contains, after the container is initially opened, i.e. once said seal is removed, the tap is at the mercy of mishandling, such as for example, actions of children, accidental openings, unauthorized consumption of its content, etc.
The closing pressure is usually directly related to the effort necessary to perform the manual opening of the tap, so that for a greater firmness of the closure and consequently a greater impermeability to oxygen, it is necessary to have greater opening force, with the consequent inconvenience this entails.
In the actuation of the tap, i.e. in the opening manoeuvre thereof for decanting the wine to a recipient vessel, such as, for example, a glass, the hand that acts on the tap conceals said glass from the user's view, so that, to control the level of liquid accessing the latter, an uncomfortable body position is also required, which it would be desirable to improve.
The permeability to oxygen of the tap body, or rather of the tap as whole, even being good, is also desirable to improve, since it directly intervenes in the maximum time that the wine can be maintained in the container in optimum conditions.
The possibility of eliminating the extended precaution that normally appears on the boxes of these containers, of giving a maximum period of consumption after eliminating the seal, which in general is less than 20% of the estimate considered before opening, is also very important. This precaution is due to the fact that, during opening, part of the pressure in the closure provided by the seal is eliminated from the tap assembly, with the logical consequence of increasing the possibilities of entry of air in the container, which also entails the loss of security in the content.